If you live in SoCal, it is more or less an article of faith that when the San Andreas Fault finally pops, we will spend up to 2 weeks or so at home holed up without electricity or water. We stock our pantry and emergency supplies accordingly. A calamity affecting the power grid, like a terrorist attack in CA or, apparently, breathing hard on the grid in TX, is the same idea, so same prep. There are some benefits to living in SoCal, though, that outweigh the risk of an earthquake, like excellent universities: